All Features articles – Page 204
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Features
Saxony-Anhalt plans to launch pension fund for civ
The eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt plans to set up a pension fund for its civil servants from 2008, saying the move is necessary to relieve long-term pressure on its budget. Saxony-Anhalt employs around 2,600 civil servants who have a right to a future state pension. By 2020, it estimates ...
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Features
An idea whose time has come
As debate continues in the UK over the future of pensions, the proposal to found multiemployer ‘Super Trusts’ has many supporters. The National Association of Pension Fund’s idea for umbrella pension schemes under which many employers would shelter has many advantages – most obviously economies of scale. But how well ...
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Features
Managing the custody relationship
Often, pension funds fail to obtain full value from their custodians. Increasingly, custodians are providing value added services and pitching themselves to pension funds. Observers say that pension funds need to understand what services they are getting. “It’s not unusual for many pension funds to go through the whole process ...
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Features
New index re-ignites fundamentals debate
The debate about the merits of so-called fundamental indices will be enlivened by claims that a new computer-driven ‘merit-based’ index – from boutique firm London & Capital – has consistently “trounced” the NASDAQ, S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average. Broadly speaking, fundamental indices only include companies with strong fundamentals ...
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Features
S&P and TSX develop gold index
Standard & Poor’s and Toronto Stock Exchange operator TSX have announced plans to create the first real-time global gold index. “Based in Canada, the new index will track key gold mining companies from around the globe,” they said. The new S&P/TSX Global Gold Index will be available by the end ...
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Features
It's going to be different this time
The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) is expected to have some of the greatest impacts of all financial services legislation introduced in the last decade. It is scheduled for implementation on 1 November 2007 and is the successor to the 1993 Investment Service Directive, a key component of the ...
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Features
Siren morphs into girl next door
Promising alluring returns from investment processes that are sometimes mysterious and seldom transparent, hedge funds have been the recent sirens of the global asset management industry. Recent reports estimate assets in such vehicles have grown to $1.5trn (€1.2trn) worldwide, $325bn in Europe alone. While double counting is even more of ...
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Features
Exponential growth for Doverie
One of the effects of Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union next year would be to relax significantly the investment restrictions on the country’s second and third pillar pension funds. Bulgaria has already relaxed its investment restrictions on pension fund investment to conform with European pension legislation. This has removed ...
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Features
Getting ready for dramatic growth
The asset management industry in Russia is comparatively young and does not have a long history. The first civilised forms of regulating this market date back to 1995 when there appeared the Federal Commission for Securities Market (FCSM), licensing of asset management activities, and the first specialised money management companies. ...
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Features
Europeans play pick and mix
As the deepest and most liquid market in the global investment universe, the US debt market cannot be ignored. But while it may provide an ocean of liquidity, has demand for US Treasuries, particularly from foreign investors, turned the ocean sterile for investors looking for sustenance? As Alex Over, director ...
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Features
Triumph of hope over experience
The worldwide demand for hedge funds and other absolute return funds will grow at an annual rate of 20% over the period 2005-8, according to the 2005 CREATE-KPMG report*. Since millions of people lost billions in the last equity bear market, this aspiration is understandable. It is also easy to ...
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Features
Swiss postal fund MD quits
Walter Kohler, managing director of Pensionskasse Post, a CHF12.2bn (e7.8bn) fund for Swiss postal employees, quit his post last month. Pensionskasse Post said Kohler’s resignation was prompted by “differences on future strategy” between him and the fund’s other executives. These executives include Yves-André Jeandupeux, who is president of Pensionskasse Post’s ...
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Features
Irresistible rise of IMM funds
Over the last 10 years, investment in European triple-A rated institutional money market funds has been nothing short of remarkable. Since their inception, funds under management have grown to a figure of around $243bn (€191bn) as at 31st December 2005* – making it one of the fastest growing investment products ...
